


landscape after cruelty

by cambion



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Uchiha Sasuke Returns to Konoha, chakra ghosts, konoha's government is prob gonna get real messed up, maybe i'll actually finish a fic for once
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-16
Updated: 2017-02-07
Packaged: 2018-09-17 21:28:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9346664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cambion/pseuds/cambion
Summary: Uchiha Sasuke is sixteen years old when he returns to Konoha, his brother’s blood on his hands.Naruto knows the minute Sasuke returns.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> so once again i'm joining a fandom and trying to write a multi-chapter monster of a fic. this is... likely a mistake so if you'd rather wait to see if i ever finish it before starting it i wont blame you. i do have one more chapter than this finished, but im gonna wait til i finish the third to post it, etc. 
> 
> basic things to keep in mind: this is sort of canon compliant? canon universe, at least. i didn't feel like stressing about what characters were doing what at this point in the manga, so really sasuke's the most canon-compliant and everyone else is just. doing things. it'll be good i promise
> 
> additionally, if anyone's interested, the title is a reference to [this richard siken poem](http://poeticfuck.blogspot.com/2008/06/siken-snow-and-dirty-rain.html) because i'm nothing if not predictable. + i'd like to give a shout-out to my dear friend myung who always betas my work and gives me the neverending support i need to even try writing things. ur the real mvp
> 
> trigger warnings for this chapter include: eye horror/eye trauma, and typical naruto violence. its all fairly minor tho. enjoy!

It ends like this.

Sasuke’s katana is hilt deep in his brother’s chest, the blade coming out the other side, dripping with blood. He thinks, ‘ _Finally_ ,’ his chest heaving and gasping as if he’s the one with a blade slid through his lung.

Itachi says, “Next time, Sasuke,” fingers to his forehead, always, always, always this with him. Blood trickles from Sasuke’s eyelids, he heaves and heaves. His brother’s blood is every where, it’s all he can feel, all he can smell. He could swear he feels the exact moment Itachi's heart gives out.

‘ _There won’t be a next time_ ,’ he thinks. Uchiha Itachi, a liar ‘til the end.

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke is sixteen years old when he returns to Konoha, his brother’s blood on his hands.  


The chuunin stationed at the gates say, “State your identity and purpose.” It makes him wonder if they even bother to check their bingo book these days. Maybe they just assume any nukenin they come across will let themselves be known simply by attacking, and they’ll deal with it then. Or, maybe they just don’t expect one to come right through the front door.

“Uchiha Sasuke, former Konoha genin, current status nukenin,” he says, voice wet with his blood. He'd recovered briefly before heading here, but clearly not enough, the journey only managing to re-open his wounds. “I’m here to collect the bounty for Uchiha Itachi’s head.”

“Oh my g—”

“Holy shi—”

“My preferred reward is pardon,” he heaves, “and medical treatment.”

That’s when they scramble, one blinking out of focus to land nimbly in front of Sasuke, defensive and at the ready. The other is hurriedly speaking into his radio, “Sir, I need back-up to the Western Gate immediately.”

The chuunin standing in front of Sasuke is practically nothing, a twig of a man who looks like he’s well in over his head, muscles shaking in his stance. Probably fresh from the chuunin exams, if Sasuke had to guess. It’s odd to think that technically, this man outranks him, what with the disaster that became of his attempt in the exams (as well as his near immediate abandonment of the village thereafter). If this chuunin needed to apprehend Sasuke, he wouldn’t even have a chance, so it’s his lucky day that Sasuke chose to be here. There appear to now be two of the chuunin, though, overlapping and shaking, which he guesses is something the guy’s got going for him.

“Detention and transport, sir,” the radio chuunin says just as Sasuke’s knees begin to buckle. “And, ah, shit, a medic-nin.”

There’s more chatter on specifics, Sasuke thinks, but the doubled chuunin is quickly beginning to spiral and morph, and now there's three of him, dammit, and Sasuke’s teeth are tasting of more dirt than blood now, having plummeted into the ground. The last thing he hears is, “And sir, please do not dispatch Uzumaki Naruto for this mission.”

* * *

The minute he’s awake enough to function, he’s being dragged from his hospital bed and into chakra-infused handcuffs, two ANBU holding him firmly on either arm. “I came here willingly,” he grumbles, not seeing the need for all the security. He expected this much if he'd been brought home in chains by Konoha shinobi, not as a willing guest. That doesn't seem to really matter, though. They don’t respond, only waiting until he’s stable enough to stand properly before directing him down the hall.

From the looks of it, he was in the medical section of the Konoha prison, and he’s now being directed to somewhere more palatable and office-like. He wonders how long he’s been out for them to be dragging him in such a rush, must've been at least a couple days. Maybe they just don’t want his bounty to rot away too long.

They settle and restrain him against the wall of the empty room, and after long enough he begins to wonder if this is just what prison cells look like in Konoha these days – flickering fluorescent lights and cozy furniture that it doesn’t seem he’s allowed to sit in. A form of torture in itself, maybe. Soon enough, though, the village elders make their way in, shortly followed by the Godaime Hokage.

“Uchiha Sasuke,” the Godaime says, taking her sweet time to take her seat across from him, sitting tall in her chair while he's made to kneel on the ground. He’s told her name is Tsunade – one of the Sannin. For all his time with Orochimaru, he never did learn much about her. When he spoke of his former team, it had mostly been of Jiraiya, and mostly with spite. To him, it seemed Tsunade was only ever a footnote, a means to an end. But then, he guesses, that’s what everyone was to Orochimaru.

Sasuke shed no tears over his blood.

“Hokage,” Sasuke answers. Respect is far from him, but strategy is not. He keeps his chin held high, and his gaze locked with hers. The elders on either side of her seem to expect a greeting as well; he gives none.

“I suppose a ‘welcome home,’ is in order,” she says, opening her notes. She approaches this meeting with all the casualty of if there were no more than a budget review. The ANBU on either side of him, and the restraints around his wrists and legs, say otherwise. The elders seem to have no such sense of casualty, either, their faces stone and their stances assertive, even in their old age. “I never really knew you from your time with Konoha, but Team Kakashi tells me great things.”

“Thank you, Hokage.”

“Respect,” she says, “is not one of those great things I was told. I’ll hope this is a positive growth for you.”

“Of course.”

“So, to get to the point of it,” she says. ‘ _Finally_ ,’ Sasuke thinks, biting his tongue. “I’m told you were hoping to claim the reward for Uchiha Itachi’s head.”

“That’s correct. I would like to exchange my bounty for his, as permitted under Konoha law. Meaning I defer my right to payment, and instead request pardon and returned citizenship. As well as medical treatment, as I’ve already been given.”

“That’s certainly true,” Tsunade says, “per Hokage approval, of course.” She’s playing tough, she has to be – if she hasn’t made her decision yet, then he wouldn’t have gotten medical treatment already. But then, if he recalls correctly, her specialty is medical ninjutsu. Maybe that’s just a moral point for her.

“Of course.”

“And I’m willing to review that, should you make your case well enough. But there’s one big problem.” He raises an eyebrow. “Where is Uchiha Itachi’s head?”

“Where are my belongings?” Sasuke asks. He’s not even wearing any of the clothes he came in, instead in loose-fitting hospital garb.

“We have them,” she says, “Uchiha Itachi’s remains were not among them.”

He sighs, “There is a summoning scroll in my bag. It will only respond to my blood-seal, but it will bring you his body.” Tsunade has been leveling him with a cold stare, calculating, making her status known to a boy who may not otherwise regard her as the authority she is. This is the first time Sasuke makes an effort to return that look, “I will perform this, should I receive pardon, and one other condition.”

“And that is?”

“That upon their confirmation, Uchiha Itachi’s remains be put in the Uchiha Memorial.”

“Hm,” Tsunade considers, before signaling to one of her guards, who brings out the bag. They make no move to bring it to Sasuke just yet, however. “That’s certainly a condition we can consider; _after_ we’ve seen Uchiha Itachi’s head. Not before.”

“I will not make the summon without your word.” His pardon, he could consider giving up. It will ruin everything but – he could make do. Itachi, however, will not become a cadaver. Over Sasuke’s dead body; though he’d then become one as well, then, wouldn't he?

“Uchiha, need I remind you that you are in no position to negotiate with me,” Tsunade says. “If Uchiha Itachi is as dead as you claim, whether or not you are rewarded makes no difference to Konoha. This is for you.”

“I have one more thing that you may be interested in,” Sasuke says then. “Again, per my conditions.”

Tsunade does not respond, only stares, so he takes that as a go-ahead.

“I will also deliver Orochimaru’s remains, free of charge.”

Tsunade considers, “You’ll summon Orochimaru’s remains before, as proof, I trust.”

“Of course.”

She signals to the ANBU to bring Sasuke his things, as well as loosen his restraints enough that he can perform the summoning.

The elders begin to speak up then, “Hokage, no need to be so hasty, we should—”

“I’m sorry,” Tsunade says, “are you bringing Orochimaru’s head to me on a silver platter?”

“No, Hokage.”

“Then be quiet.”

The elders fume, and Sasuke can’t help but let a twitch of a smile crawl to his face. He’ll admit, of the two Hokage he’s known, he prefers this one.

He makes the summon, and suddenly the room is filled with the giant snake carcass that remains of Orochimaru’s corpse. It’s grotesque, but thankfully not rotting – Sasuke had made certain to preserve it, knowing it would make a good bargaining chip someday. This isn’t quite how he pictured using it, but things have changed.

Tsunade makes a low whistle, though Sasuke can no longer see her from the other side of the carcass. “Alright, kid, you’ve got yourself a deal.”

“Hokage!” an elder shouts. “This is hardly – this is a monster! How could this possibly be Orochimaru?”

“No, this is definitely Orochimaru. I have no doubts,” she says. “I’m not the only one of our team that made great efforts to alter my appearance.” She sighs, somewhere between wistful and frustrated.

“But we should still deliberate on the results before—”

“Fair enough. We will wait to determine pardon until after this meeting. However,” she says, now turning her attention to Sasuke, “you have my word that Uchiha Itachi’s remains will be dealt with only as you see fit.”

He sighs, ‘ _Good enough_.’ “Thank you, Hokage.”

“In the meantime, guards – please get me a… clean-up crew, or something. Do we have any un-assigned hunter-nin at the moment? Get me a team of those. Stat.”

The hunter-nin arrive and begin to make quick work of the carcass (though if the stiffness in their bodies upon entry is anything to go by, they respond with a large amount of initial disgust), and soon Sasuke and Tsunade’s eyes are able to meet once more. “So, Sasuke,” she says, and it feels too familiar, but he doesn’t comment. “May I ask, why the change of heart? To my understanding, not even my most convincing ninja was able to drag you back here last he tried.”

“Your most convincing ninja?” he can’t help but ask.

“Naruto,” she says then, and it’s with the first genuine smile he’s seen from her. “The little shit was able to convince me to become Hokage, after all.”

If he shows any reaction facially, Tsunade doesn’t respond to it. “My goal was only ever to avenge my clan,” he says. “I’ve done that. Where else should I have gone afterwards?”

“My intel tells me that the Akatsuki had hopes in recruiting you,” she says, “would you not prefer that?”

“They did offer, yes. But no, I have no interest in being a senseless criminal. I declined.” The elders exchange a look with Tsunade, though Sasuke can’t quite place what for.

“Fair enough,” she says. “Now, let’s move on to your next bounty, shall we?”

He makes quick work of the summon, Itachi’s body appearing sudden and flat on the floor before him. Like Orochimaru, his body has been preserved, so rotting hasn’t settled in yet. Were it not for the fact that he is sprawled vulnerably and limply, one could mistake the body for a living one.

Tsunade fails to hold back a gasp despite herself, and the elders are even worse at hiding their astonishment.

And well, one other thing would distinguish this from the living Itachi – his eyes are missing from his skull.

* * *

It starts like this.  


Sasuke is sitting in the Uchiha estate, legs dangling and kicking off the porch. He’s sixteen, and his feet should easily reach the ground by now, but they don’t, swinging and kicking just like they did when he was seven. He stretches his feet to reach the ground, but it remains just out of reach no matter how he strains.

Itachi is sitting beside him, humming in a way that Sasuke had forgotten he ever did. It’s always been something he associated more with his mother, but now that he thinks about it, Itachi always did too. He’s trying to place exactly what tune Itachi’s humming (Did he hear his mother hum it? Or somewhere else?), when he realizes that the sky is a deep, blood red.

“Fuck,” he curses, jumping to his feet, every hair on his body standing on end. Blood is coated thick on his hands, and all at once he can see the sword in Itachi’s chest that was empty just moments ago. ‘ _I killed him_ ,’ he thinks, ‘ _I killed him, I swear, but he’s still here_.’ Is he trapped in tsukuyomi? He must be. Was killing him an illusion, too, then? Last he remembers, he—

He was face-to-mask with Madara Uchiha, and he heard the truth and he –

“Relax, Sasuke,” Itachi says, “this isn’t a genjutsu.”

“Like hell it isn’t,” Sasuke bites back, but he’s less sure than he tries to sound. He’s been in genjutsu, he’s been in tsukuyomi – this isn’t quite that. It feels more like a distant memory of it, like a dream.

“I’ll admit,” Itachi says as he stands up, pulling the sword from his chest. There’s no blood on the blade. “I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this, in a way.”

“You—you—”

“Madara told you, right?” Itachi says.

“He told me,” Sasuke heaves, and his chest is heaving like it was then, blood on his hands and blood on his face and Itachi’s fingers firm to his forehead. But now there’s no blood, and Itachi is standing and he’s fine. He’s humming and he’s just fucking fine. “He told me Konoha ordered you to do it. That you didn’t have a choice.”

“He told you the truth.”

“Why?” Sasuke asks, louder than he intends. By now, he has his bearings – this is either his psyche torturing him in a dream, or Itachi’s ghost back to haunt him. Itachi is dead, there’s no getting around that. He hopes he can at least get some fucking answers. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It hurts, doesn’t it?” Itachi asks, looking up at the sky. Sasuke follows his gaze, and the sky isn’t red anymore, just dark. Not the red of tsukuyomi, just the black, star-lit sky that it always is, that it always was. “It hurts to know that your clan did themselves in, that the village you need to be able to trust betrayed you.”

“That’s no reason to—”

“How are your eyes?”

“They’re fine,” Sasuke says. “Stop evading my questions.” Itachi turns to look at him then, and Sasuke realizes that Itachi's eye sockets are nothing more than gaping holes. It's sickening, it'd been sickening to pull the eyes from his brother's skull and now he feels his stomach drop in just the same way-

“I thought you might make use of mine immediately, but then, I suppose the power you got from killing me was likely more than enough for now. That was the point, after all,” he says. “And my eyes will still be there when yours begin to weaken. Hold on to them, will you? It'd be such a waste otherwise.”

“I, I will,” Sasuke agrees, and he doesn’t like this, it doesn’t make sense, he has so many questions and nowhere to begin or end.

“Good,” Itachi says with a nod. He turns his head back to the sky then, but Sasuke thinks that might be a smile on his lips. “So, what will you do, Sasuke? Now that you know the truth," his tone drops then, serious and cold. As a child, Sasuke always called it his 'mean ninja voice', because it was the way he talked after particularly hard missions. Sasuke stiffens despite himself, but quickly shifts to steel his resolve.

“I’m going to destroy Konoha,” he says.

Itachi sighs, “I was afraid you would say that.”

“After what they did to you,” Sasuke all but shouts, “after what they did to _us_ – how can you expect me to forgive them? How could _you_!”

“There is more to a village than the government which guides it, Sasuke,” Itachi says, not rising to Sasuke’s aggression. He never did, and it’s no surprise that this illusion of him won’t now. “I wish it had not come to this, but I understand your drive for vengeance. I’m the one who initially put it there, after all, aren’t I?” He steps forward then, closing the distance between them. Sasuke expects two fingers against his forehead, but instead he gets a palm against his jaw, soft and gentle. “I will help you.”

“How?” Sasuke spits. He wants to step back, but he can’t, he just lets the hand hover on his jaw and grits his teeth. “You’re dead, Itachi. You’re dead.”

“Not entirely,” Itachi explains. “In that last moment,” he says, and Sasuke remembers the fingers pressed against his forehead, “I gave you not only my powers, but also a portion of my chakra.”

“You’re still—” _Alive_?

“Dead,” he says. “A specter, nothing more. But for now I remain. I will not help you slaughter a village, but I will help you do what must be done.”

Sasuke takes a deep breath then, and he looks Itachi directly in the eyes, or, where they should be. “Okay, brother.”

He can do the slaughtering himself, later, he decides.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warnings for this chapter: some brief heteronormativity / rly rly minor homophobia at the beginning. and uh, normal naruto stuff i guess? alcohol? general warning for jiraiya? 
> 
> but ye here u guys go. chapter 3 is partially done and will be more fun to write so, expect that soonish! i'm gonna try to update every monday, i think. we'll see.
> 
> comments sustain me but also thx for just reading this! have fun

 “Sasuke’s back?” Jiraiya says. He wants to shout it from shock, but a part of him worries Naruto, wherever across the village he is at the moment, will manage to hear him. The boy’s got an obsession, and if Sasuke were less of well… a guy, he’d think that Naruto had it bad for him, and he means _bad_. The kid can hardly seem to get past two sentences anymore without bringing the guy up. He’s considered using their dynamic as a plot for one of his books, but Naruto’s his editor too often, it’d be too obvious. On the other hand, maybe that’s giving the kid too much credit.

“You better believe it,” Tsunade says, making herself comfortable next to him at the bar. It may be a bar, but upon Tsunade’s entry, it became far from public. Patrons paid their tabs, workers went home, leaving Jiraiya, Tsunade, and a bartender that never seems to speak. Either ANBU himself or ANBU approved, Jiraiya would guess. Once everyone filtered out, Tsunade even put up some sound barriers for privacy. The perks and shortcomings of being Hokage, he guesses.

“How? Or… why?” he asks, incredulous, before pausing, “Does that mean Uchiha Itachi is…?”

“Dead,” she answers, taking a quick sip of her drink. “The remains are in limbo right now, but should be interred at the Uchiha Memorial within the next few days.”

Jiraiya scoffs, “I didn’t expect that kind of respect for him from you.”

“Not from me. The kid requested it.”

“The hell?” Jiraiya had never spent much time with Sasuke – hell, not really any at all, just seen him on a few occasions. But he wanted his brother dead enough to abandon everything to get stronger, that doesn’t speak of much love for him. With what he did to the Uchiha Clan, who could really blame the kid, though?

“I was surprised too, but I guess family’s family,” she sighs. “He also brought Orochimaru’s body, if you can call it that. It’s more serpent than man, more beast than serpent.”

“Well, _shit_ , Tsunade,” he chuckles, nursing at his own drink. “Hell of a day you’ve had, haven’t ya?”

“One way to put it.”

They sit in silence for a moment, before she says, “I guess we’ll send the body off for studies but, I think I get how the kid feels, you know? I’d like to be able to bury him.”

“Yeah.” They sip their drinks for a time, looking ahead from the bar. The bartender polishes glasses idly. Jiraiya says, “I should’ve been the one to do it.”

Tsunade puts a hand on Jiraiya’s shoulder, says gently, “I know.”

He turns to her then, giving her a wry grin, “I could think of other ways for you to comf-” he’s interrupted by the same hand slamming down on his head.  She shakes her head and calls the bartender for another drink.

There’s more that could be said about Orochimaru – countless more, there always is. They never understood him, but dammit, if they didn’t try and still get left wanting. And maybe now that he’s gone, they should address it. Instead, Jiraiya makes jokes and Tsunade’s mocks anger.

“So, what’s the verdict on the kid?” Jiraiya asks then, changing the subject further. Their friend may have been a lost cause that needed to be removed from the earth, but it looks like that might not be quite the case for this generation.

“He asked for pardon as his reward,” she answers. “I don’t think he knows that we never actually classified him as a criminal. We should’ve, if we’re going by the book, but if we did we might’ve gotten him back in pieces, instead.” She groans, taking another swig, “The elders think that I’ve been too soft on him, but frankly, what’s his biggest crime right now? Killing two S-rank criminals and then returning their bodies? Sure, he defected, but that’s hardly the bloodiest crime. I think he’s a brat, but I don’t think he’s a brat who should rot in prison.”

And this – this is nice to see. Too much of Tsunade’s life she’s tried to beat down the part of her that cares, because really, she cares _so_ much, puts her whole heart into everything. He used to joke that’s why her chest was so big, she needed a place for all that heart. To Tsunade, nothing is more precious to her than a saved life, and even if the Uchiha kid’s not bleeding out at the moment, a life in prison is no life at all. He’s thankful that Tsunade’s in the Hokage position, it gives her the chance to channel all of this into something good. Jiraiya would’ve been shit at the job, they all know it.

Unfortunately, he does need to challenge her, “He was apprenticed under Orochimaru for three years; I doubt there’s no other crimes he committed. I still think a pardon would be fitting, anyway, in exchange for his bounties, but you need to consider that.”

“Consider it considered,” she says with a bit of bite that time. He assumes she’s less annoyed at him and more annoyed that he’s right, that the elders have already said this to her. “But that’s the thing; we don’t have evidence of any crimes tied to him. We do have evidence of Orochimaru’s, even over recent years, but nothing to indicate Sasuke’s direct involvement in any of it. Unless we have that, we can’t assume he committed any crimes, either.”

“Hm,” Jiraiya breathes, considering whether to order another drink or not. The topic’s too heavy, he feels like it’s keeping him sober no matter how much alcohol he throws down the hatch. “Who’s gonna tell Naruto the good news?”

“He can’t know,” Tsunade answers quickly. “Or, well, not yet, anyhow. Negotiations are too delicate. Even if we pardon him – don’t give me that look, you know I’ll do the best I can – there’s the matter of reinstatement, and if he even chooses to stay here after. Naruto’s a wild card with too much heart involved, there’s no need to rock the boat yet.”

“I agree,” Jiraiya says, “but it’s only a matter of time before he figures it out, and you know that. The kid might be dumb as a rock, but he’s still smarter than he looks. When it comes to this kinda thing, he’ll figure it out before too long.”

“Yeah,” she relents. “I know. I’ll let you know as soon as we’ve got the approval.”

* * *

 

Naruto knows the minute Sasuke returns.

He doesn’t really believe himself at first – chakra tracking isn’t really exactly Naruto’s forte to begin with. But if there’s any chakra signature Naruto could recognize, it’s Sasuke’s, and he’s made damn sure of that. He feels it the second it’s within a decent range, and he thinks he feels it coming closer, but, shit, he’s awful at pinpointing exact locations. Is it even in the village? How close even is he? By the time he’s certain it’s Sasuke, and he’s not imagining things, it blips out of existence.

“Naruto, are you alright?” Lee asks from the seat beside him at the ramen bar.

“I,” Naruto starts, before shaking his head. “It’s nothing. Just… thought I sensed something, I guess.”

And he does his best to think nothing of it. He’s had a couple false alarms already and well, he doesn’t wanna be the boy who cried Sasuke, does he?

He does pretty good at that, too, until people start acting _weird_.

Naruto wishes he was less used to people acting strangely around him – the entire first twelve years of his fucking life were just people being stranger after stranger. Always avoidance and glares, like everything he touched turned to ruin. When everyone expected it, it was hard not to follow through, paint buckets and firecrackers in tow. It’s easier to be punished for something you actually know you did, after all.

It wasn’t until Mizuki-sensei told him the truth about him, and what he was (“What’s _in_ you,” Iruka-sensei would correct, “Not you.”) that everything finally started to click. People wanted to punish him for what the Kyuubi did, to them and their village.

And knowing, knowing was better. It still hurt – maybe even hurt worse, feeling like all the blood was on his hands and there was nothing he could do about it. But at least he knew where he stood with people. At least he knew why.

So now, when people are cagey with him, all he feels is the burning need to know _why_.

First, he can’t decipher a pattern, but eventually he realizes that it’s pretty much every jounin he passes. They should be better at their jobs and less obvious about their concerns, but for once they’re not, he guesses. There are an awful lot of new jounin at the moment, which may be a part of their amateur behavior. Maybe they’re just underestimating him. All the same, every time they pass him, they seem to make a note of where exactly he is, and most likely, where exactly he _should not be_.

It becomes even more obvious when Neji approaches him, asking him to grab lunch with him. Not because he and Neji aren’t friends; since his return to Konoha, Neji has asked him to train several times between missions. But that fits, because that’s how Neji shows friendship; through acknowledging you as a respected rival in equal combat. Neji does not ask people out to food, especially not to _Ichiraku Ramen_.

But hey, maybe Naruto’s wrong. Maybe Neji is just trying to become closer friends with Naruto, and Lee mentioned grabbing lunch with him, so he decided to try it as well. Maybe Naruto’s paranoid.

“I need you for this mission,” Tsunade says, and hell yes, this is exactly what Naruto needs. They’ve had next to no leads on any of their major enemies lately (no Akatsuki, no Sasuke-) and he’s been going stir-crazy because of it. Even _Lee_ ’s been getting tired of training with him so much.

“Alright!” he exclaims, before looking around, realizing he’s the only one that Tsunade’s summoned. “Where’s Sakura and Sai?”

“They’re needed elsewhere,” she says. “You’ll be accompanying Team Ebisu on their first C-rank.”

“Tea—Konohamaru’s team?! Come on, I’m way above that!”

“No,” she says firmly, “you’re not. Despite whatever ability you have, or whatever missions we’ve been giving you recently, you’re still a genin, Naruto. Besides, I’m assigning you to accompany them because I’m concerned this mission will prove more dangerous than we’re expecting. You’ll be a great help to them, I’m sure.” And, alright, she’s got a point, he guesses – it’s still so fucking stupid that everyone but him is a chunin already, and he’s still stuck with the kiddie rank. Well, both him and Sasuke are still genin, he guesses.

“Sure, I’ll do it,” he relents, and Tsunade sighs of relief, like she was trying to convince him. Which is… strange. He almost wants to object then, but he doubts he’d figure anything out, anyway. He goes on the stupid mission.

* * *

 

“I’m giving the kid his pardon,” Tsunade says. “I’m not budging on it.”

“Are you sure that’s wise?” one council member – Mitokado Homura – asks, but it’s hardly a question. What he means is ‘ _You’re immature and naïve and your grandfather would be disappointed, Tsunade._ ’ She wants to punch him in the teeth.

“I’m sure it’s right,” she sighs. “We should’ve told him right off the bat that he doesn’t have a bounty, anyway. He didn’t need to do all that bargaining.”

“This does mean we do not have to provide the reward,” the other elder – Utatane Koharu – says. “We need the funds, with the threats we have lurking. I know you think me shrewd for it, but it’s true.”

“I guess,” Tsunade says, and it needs no saying that she’s never had much of a mind for money and making fair judgments with it. It just feels so… callous. She guesses she might be as naïve as they say she is. “Regardless, though, he gets his pardon, and after appropriate probation he’ll get his reinstatement.”

The elders exchange a look, before Homura says, “He could prove useful, should we maintain the leverage of a bounty.”

“Excuse me?”

“He has an offer to join the Akatsuki,” Koharu continues, “and we are desperately in need of information from them.”

“We are _not_ telling this kid to go join the goddamn Akatsuki,” Tsunade all but spits. “Even if we trusted him – that’s too great a risk, to him and the village. And I know for a fact you trust him a hell of a lot less than I do.”

“Understood, Hokage,” Homura agrees.

“We’ll move him from the prison to an inn, for now,” she says, “it can be the one we typically have the ambassadors stay in, the ANBU are used to keeping it secure. He’ll remain there while we process the pardon.”

“Are the chakra seals working?” Koharu asks.

“Yes, if the lack of panic in our lower ranks is anything to go by,” she says. They’d had his chakra signature blocked since the moment he was apprehended, and it seemed to have been working. That didn’t mean she wasn’t worried about it – hence going the extra mile to send Naruto out of the village.

“Those should also be maintained until his pardon is fully processed.”

“Agreed,” Tsunade says. “Alright then, if you don’t mind, I’ve got a lot of paperwork to do.”

* * *

 

The C-rank is, in fact, far from violent, and Naruto is, in fact, far from needed on it. The most roughed-up he gets is when all the kids decide to try and take him down at once, and while it’s not a success, they do scuff him up a little. The scuffs are healed way before he gets back from the mission.

Still, he goes to the hospital for a standard post-mission check-up (mostly to convince Moegi to go – she hit her head pretty bad while trying to show off a move to him), and he walks straight to Sakura’s ward to get the personal visit from her.

“You look fine,” she huffs, but it’s with a smile, “why are you here?”

“I’m back from a mission! Check me up!” he whines. She shakes her head but sets up a room for him anyhow.

He’s sitting on a hospital bed while she checks his pulse, “A C-rank with Team Ebisu? Really?”

“That’s what I said! But Tsunade seemed to really need me to go, I _guess_ , so I went. Precious time I could’ve been using training!”

“Oh shut up,” she says, “At least you got to leave the village – I’ve been stuck working ridiculously long hours here all week, even though we’ve been practically dead. You don’t know the meaning of boredom. Say ah,” she sticks the tongue depressor into his mouth as he makes the noise far louder than he honestly needs to.

“Turn around, and lift up your shirt so I can see your back,” she says, and he moves to do just that. It’s weird, if this were a couple years ago, he knows he’d be red to the ears over this – Sakura’s hands sliding over his back to look for any potential injuries. But now, it’s just a check-up, it’s just a visit with a friend. It might be the fact that Sakura’s nothing but professional, a true medic-nin worthy of training under the Godaime herself, but he also just… doesn’t see Sakura like that anymore. It’s weird to think about.

“Alright,” she says, stepping back. “Now unless you really want x-rays or something, I think we can probably call you good. Maybe take a couple more showers.”

“Hey!” he starts, and that’s when it hits him: he senses Sasuke’s chakra for the second time.

It doesn’t surprise him as much this time, so he notices it quicker. It’s sharp, clear – like it’s _close_ , he knows it’s in the village this time, and he feels like he could pinpoint it if he just –

And then it’s gone, just as quick as it came.

“What is it?” Sakura interrupts, “You’ve got a stupid look on your face.”

“Sakura,” he says, and he knows he sounds serious, and that’s why Sakura starts to look kind of scared and hey, this _is_ serious, so, “I just sensed Sasuke’s chakra, in Konoha.”

“Wh- there’s no way, are you sure you’re not imagining things?”

“This is the second time; the first one was a while ago, like maybe a week? But I’m sure of it.”

 She looks like she wants to believe him, but she really, really doesn’t, and that makes her look real sad in a way he fucking hates. “Okay,” she says, “Let’s say he is. Can you still sense his chakra?”

“No, it was there and then, just nothing.”

“Could you tell exactly where he is?”

“No, it was too quick!”

“Then there’s nothing you can do short of starting up a search party,” she says, turning to finish up her report on the check-up. “You know I wanna find him more than anything, Naruto, but unless you sense him again, you can’t do anything. No use getting in a tizzy about it, okay?”

“Okay,” he says, because she’s right.

Consider Naruto tizzied, because he knows he’s right, too.

Now, he has no proof that the sudden weird jounin behavior, or the sudden stupid mission, has anything to do with Sasuke’s chakra emergence. And really, he has no proof at all that the jounin are even behaving odd at all – just a hunch, a pattern, and maybe Tsunade really did just wanna be safe and have him on that mission. But it’s all too weird at once and Naruto’s finally getting used to a bunch of tiny signs turning into one big event, so he’s on the look-out for it now. (All the ways that they should have known Zabuza was alive when they thought he wasn’t, all the ways that the chuunin exams were wrong that first time, all the ways that Sasuke said ‘ _I’m leaving_ ’ in his own way before he ever did.)

And then it happens a third time, and a fourth, and a fifth, and it’s fucking killing him, all these sparks of Sasuke and then nothing. He’d say it’s worse than the years he went without seeing Sasuke at all, but he remembers how much that fucking tore him to pieces and nothing can compare to that. Not even the time he saw him again only for him to almost kill him – not even this. But the sixth time, the sixth time it stays. He’s in the middle of training with Kiba when he feels it, and his eyes go wide.

“You okay, man?” Kiba stops, seeing the way Naruto’s entire body goes rigid.

“Kiba, when we tracked Sasuke—” and he can see the way Kiba’s face gets a bit annoyed the way everyone seems to when he brings up Sasuke, but it’s always important, okay, and, “do you still remember his scent?”

“Uh,” he says, “kind of? That’s a weird question, dude.”

“I mean, if he was nearby, and I asked you to sniff out if he was here, could you do it?”

“Me? Probably not,” he says, but it’s with his big, toothy grin, “but Akamaru’s got you covered. Why? You expecting a visit?”

“I think he’s here right now,” he says as seriously as he can, because dammit if Sasuke’s here he needs to be where he is, like, _two weeks ago_. “Can you have him try?”

He doesn’t even bother asking why the hell Naruto thinks that, just turns to Akamaru and asks him, and seems blown out of the fucking water when Akamaru actually perks up. He meets eyes with Naruto then, nodding, “Follow me!” Akamaru takes off running, Kiba leaping onto his back. Naruto immediately follows into line beside them.

The more they run, the more obvious it becomes: the abandoned Uchiha compound, settled on the outskirts of the village, where it’s laid empty for nearly a decade now. There’d been talk of demolishing it to make way for new properties – Naruto knows, because he fought tooth and nail to stop the most recent attempt. He didn’t know if Sasuke would ever want to return to it, but it should be there if he did, he deserved that much (and more). Tsunade had relented, and despite the rumors that brewed about her soft spot for Naruto because of it, he was thankful.

And he still is, because it’s seeming like when Sasuke returned home, this is where he went, and if it hadn’t been here, maybe he would’ve turned around, maybe Naruto wouldn’t be _this_ close, finally, finally.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warnings for this chapter include uh. death? burning of bodies? nothing too out of nowhere
> 
> i took some artistic liberties w/ jutsus and uchiha shit in this but i dont think anyone involved w naruto, even kishimoto, knows what consistency is so we'll call it good
> 
> o btw i just changed the rating to teen instead of mature b/c i doubt ill rly make it much more violent than is ever addressed in canon + i dont intend to write graphic sex b/c im 20 and theyre 16. ill let y'all know if it ever changes for some reason, tho.

When an Uchiha has died, clan tradition dictates that the body be burned by ceremonial Katon, as performed by the clan head.

After the clan massacre, with Sasuke as the only survivor, this left him as the acting clan head. He’d never been taught the proper Katon for funeral rites, only knew the fireball jutsu his father had taught him, but he had tried to cast fire to the pyre of his clan with it at the very least. Even so, he could not manage a lick of fire through the racking of his lungs, and instead village officials performed it for him, the Hokage’s hand firm on his shoulder as he wailed. One Uchiha left (two, two, two, but one of them wrong, one of them a traitor, one of them bathed in blood and called _brother_ ), and he couldn’t even perform the most basic of requirements of him in duty to his clan.

Historically, Sasuke knows this duty to have more to do with the Sharingan than anything else – should the eye remain preserved whatsoever, they become vulnerable to theft by the hands of outsiders. Even Uchiha eyes that have not activated the Sharingan are rumored to still be able to do so in the sockets of others, and so all Uchiha eyes must be properly done away with. This responsibility, naturally, must remain within the clan.

In which case, Sasuke need not be concerned about his brother’s body, as his eyes remain far from it. Still, it would feel… wrong, to do anything else.

“What is it, Sasuke?” Itachi asks him. They’re once again in an imaginary Uchiha estate, one where his mother’s shoes lay by the door and his father’s swords are proudly on display. Itachi is kneeled on the floor, folding laundry, just as Mikoto always did.

“What is what?”

“You have that look,” Itachi says, looking up to meet his eyes, sockets still gaping empty. “Like you always do when something’s worrying you.”

“You don’t know what kind of looks I make, it’s been ten years.”

“Nine, actually. And some things don’t change as much as you’d think,” he says. “Now, what is it?”

There’s a long moment, where all Sasuke can hear is Itachi’s hand gliding along fabric as he folds, and the soft chirps of birds outside the window. This is… peaceful, he realizes. This is calm in a way that this house has never been for him. Even before the massacre, the rooms leaked with tension, with Fugaku’s judging eyes and ears, with the tight air of oncoming disaster. Fugaku’s swords are no longer on the wall.

He eventually says, “Is your body… Are you tied to your remains, at all?”

“Are you afraid that if you burn my body I will no longer be here with you?”

Sasuke swallows. He doesn’t… doesn’t fear Itachi’s disappearance. The man is dead, he’s accepted that, and moved on. There’s only so long that a ghost can live in your head, and he can’t expect any second chances. Death is death. He learned this when he watched his mother’s body burn on the pyre, one of many and yet still the one which tore the most horror throughout him. She’d just been folding laundry that morning, smiling and humming as she always did. Uchiha Mikoto did not return from the flames.

(He remembered this, later, with his best friend’s body at his feet, breathing but open, vulnerable. A bond remaining unsevered. Yet, death is death, and it cannot be undone. He walked away.)

But Itachi said he would help him with whatever time he has, and he will take what he can get.

Itachi takes his silence as an answer, continues, “My chakra is with you, not my body. I am not certain how long it will last, but for quite some time, I imagine. I’m sure it will be long enough to finish your mission.”

“Alright,” Sasuke says.

“You still have that look. What else?”

“Were you ever taught the Katon for funeral rites?”

Sasuke would describe Itachi’s eyes then as looking sad, were it not for the discrepancy of their absence. Still, Itachi nods, lifting his hands to show him the proper seals, “This is how it’s done.”

* * *

When Sasuke is finally in sight, Naruto touches down on a rooftop and stops.

He’s standing alone at the Uchiha memorial, the section of land on the edge of the compound dedicated to their dead. He’s collected a great deal of firewood, and he’s preparing a pyre. A body lays lifeless beside him.

“Who’s the dead guy?” Kiba asks, squinting. “Should we be worried?”

They’re at a distance, so Naruto struggles to confirm for certain, but there’s only one other Uchiha aside from Sasuke remaining to be put into the Uchiha memorial.

“You should go,” Naruto says then, easing to jump to the next rooftop.

“What!” Kiba hisses, “Look, I trust you, and I know this is like, your thing, but you can’t just take him head-on. Hell, we should call for back-up for us, even.”

“This isn’t gonna be a fight,” Naruto says, turning to look at him. “It’s his brother’s funeral.”

The look on Kiba’s face is, Naruto hopes, one of understanding.

“You should go, I got this.”

Kiba doesn’t look convinced, but he sighs, “Okay. Just, be careful, alright?”

Kiba leaps backwards to exit the compound. Naruto edges forward.

As he gets closer, the figures come into focus: Sasuke building the pyre slowly, meticulously, respectfully. Itachi’s body lies to the side - and yeah, that’s _definitely_ Itachi – his arms folded neatly over his chest. He knows that revenge was everything to Sasuke, remembers the way Sasuke’s eyes burned and his body became a restless flame when they encountered Itachi that first time at the inn. That was really when everything changed for them, he thinks, when Sasuke stopped listening to anything but his own burning need, when he turned himself into a weapon at all costs. And Naruto could never blame him for that, really, even if it was beyond something he ever really understood.

Kakashi had always said that what Sasuke was doing was a mistake, that revenge would bring him no peace. With the way Sasuke’s hands shake as he lifts his brother’s body onto the pyre, Naruto thinks Kakashi must have been right.

Sasuke lifts his hands then to perform a seal, fire bursting from his lips. It’s not the fireball he’s flinged at Naruto so many times, but something slower, more even, and he leaves his hands up to maintain the seal, the fire burning bright and heavy.

By this point, Sasuke must know Naruto’s there, he’s so close – and he knows it like he knows anything else that Sasuke knows Naruto’s chakra as good as he knows his. However, he’s made no indication of it, and so Naruto leaps down to the earth from the final rooftop. If Sasuke asks him to leave, it’ll be the one time he listens to the request. He needs to see Sasuke like he needs to breathe, but there are times when people need to be alone. He admits this might be one of them.

He steps forward at a cautious pace, before ultimately standing directly beside Sasuke, eyes forward on Itachi’s burning body. Sasuke makes no move to dismiss him, and so he reaches over to rest a hand on Sasuke’s shoulder. And if Sasuke seems to relax under his touch, well, he can only hope he’s not imagining it.

* * *

“So you’re telling me,” Tsunade says, “that that kid managed to sneak, unnoticed, past six ANBU guards stationed at his location?”

The ANBU kneeled before her answers, “Yes, ma’am. We’ve since tracked and located him, but he was unmonitored for several hours.”

“Oh for the love of,” she sighs, running her hand over her face. “I assume, since you didn’t lead with it, that he’s not up to anything dangerous?”

“No,” the ANBU responds, “he appears to be conducting a funeral for his bounty on his property.”

Well, that makes sense, at least. She doesn’t know why he couldn’t just fucking wait – he’s still on probation, and this is technically a breach of that, and she’s already busting her ass to get this kid out of the hot seat. But a funeral’s good, that’s emotional, she can use that.

“There is one problem,” the ANBU says then.

“And that is?”

“His escape means he evaded the chakra barriers for a time. And it appears Uzumaki Naruto has found him.”

* * *

 

Sasuke has no idea what to make of Naruto standing beside him.

He knew he’d have to deal with Naruto sooner or later – despite the years they’d spent apart, and all the times Sasuke’d attempted to put a death sentence between the two of them, the stubborn fucker just kept coming back, pushed forward by nothing but delusions of friendship and bonds. He knew that the minute Naruto knew he was here, he’d come running, and that knowledge had rested uneasily in him since his return. (He also knew that Naruto was going to be the most difficult part of this, the light that he can never bring himself to quite snuff out.)

Yet, he wasn’t ready for it here, now, Naruto standing with him as his brother’s body burns, a hand resting heavy and warm on his shoulder. Burning bodies takes time, and it’s been near three hours now, but Naruto has not budged. At about an hour in, he began to lean more of his weight into Sasuke, but nothing else has changed.

He wonders how he must look to him now, he knows at least one tear’s escaped his eyes by now. This isn’t something Naruto was ever supposed to see.

“Still here, is he?”  Itachi asks from somewhere inside him, the dual world manifesting with him.

“Tradition states that no one speaks during cremation,” Sasuke says to Itachi only.

“Talking to me is much more like thinking, which I’m fairly certain is allowed.” The appearance of Itachi’s form in his mind is striking when doubled which the physical form burning before him, and Sasuke’s shoulders jump with the gasp that’s torn from his chest. Naruto’s fingers grip onto his shoulder tighter. “He’s a good kid, that one. Your closest bond.”

Sasuke doesn’t say anything, focusing on the burning, burning, burning.

“I’m glad you didn’t listen to me,” Itachi says.

The last of Itachi’s body, the final parts of his bones, are crumbling into dust under the flames.

“I’m glad you didn’t kill him.”

He lets the fire die out, hands dropping and body resting. He turns then to Naruto, asks, “What are you doing here?”

Naruto snorts, giving Sasuke’s shoulder a good squeeze before withdrawing his hand, “Could ask you the same question.”  He circles his arm then, rubbing his own shoulder with his other hand – sore from being in the same position for hours.

“I think it’s obvious why I’m back,” he says, humor in his voice but more bitter than anything. He gets to work then at dealing with the ashes, casts the jutsu Itachi taught him to help with this as well.

“Yeah, well,” Naruto says, “I feel like I’m pretty obvious too. I’ve been sayin’ it over and over again forever now, haven’t I? Didn’t want you to be alone.”

He doesn’t say it, doesn’t say anything, but he thinks, ‘ _I’m glad too_.’ He can feel Itachi smiling.

After he finishes with Itachi’s ashes and properly interring them in the memorial, several ANBU immediately land in a circle around him and Naruto. He sighs, though he was expecting as much – he’s more surprised that they waited out the funeral, than anything. “Nice to see you guys again.”

“The Hokage would like to see you,” one says. “We will escort you.” ‘ _A polite arrest_ ,’ he thinks.

“I’m coming too!” Naruto asserts, “I need to see if Granny Tsunade’s got any more missions for me, anyway.”

Sasuke expects the ANBU to immediately shut him down; he’s the village clown making ridiculous requests, but instead they nod, and begin to head to the Hokage’s office, clear that Naruto and Sasuke are expected to come with.

Well, that’s something new.

* * *

When they enter Tsunade’s office, Naruto makes it immediately clear that he is _pissed_.

“How long has Sasuke been back here?” he shouts, “Is this why I’ve been going on stupid C-ranks all week?!”

Sasuke had wondered how on earth they’d been keeping Naruto from him; he assumed there’d been chakra barriers, and he’d been correct in that, but the addition of missions would also make sense. Guess they were running low on the good stuff – Naruto must be a chunin by now, he’s probably mostly on B-ranks these days. And considering he’s been pissed about C-ranks since he was a damn genin, no wonder he’s still whining.

“It was a delicate matter, Naruto,” Tsunade shouts back, “we would’ve been telling you soon _anyway_. Sasuke _was_ almost off probation,” she turns her glance to Sasuke then and were he less accustomed to life outside the village, he’s certain it’d almost be scary, “if he hadn’t broken his house arrest. Now we’re gonna have to go through even more red tape.”

“So, so, so,” Naruto chatters, and he’s practically bouncing out of his body, a huge bundle of energy tightly wrapped in skin. Sasuke almost – “Sasuke’s back though, for good? He’s just on probation?” and Naruto’s grinning over at him then, all teeth and big, blue eyes. Sasuke clenches his fists.

“Like I said, red tape,” Tsunade answers for him, “but yes. Reinstatement is a long way off, but returned citizenship is easily on the table. We’re working on it.”

“Fuck yes!” Naruto cheers, fist in the air. “So all the jounin know, right? Does Sakura?”

“Wh- how do you know that the jounin know?” Tsunade asks, eyebrows furrowed.

“They’ve been acting weird around me since Sasuke showed up,” he says.

“And _how_ do you know when he showed up?”

“Noticed his chakra couple weeks ago,” Naruto says, “but you put up barriers after that, probably. Yeah? So I got confused.”

He noticed – even Sasuke has a hard time noticing specific chakra signatures unless he knows to be looking for it. Naruto had no warning that he ought to expect Sasuke’s arrival, and yet he knew immediately. It must be because he’s an Uzumaki, Sasuke thinks, he must have chakra recognition abilities closer to Karin’s level. He doesn’t let himself think beyond that.

“I, yes,” Tsunade sighs. “All the jounin are aware, don’t be too mad at Kakashi for not telling you. And no, Sakura does not know.”

“Well, we gotta go tell her then! Is she at work right now? Oh dude, she is _gonna_ freak, and she didn’t believe me when I told her I sensed you were back, ha!”

“What part of Sasuke is still on probation aren’t you getting? He needs to go back—” But Naruto is already grabbing Sasuke’s wrist and dragging him out of the room. “Naruto, wait, I need to talk to you about a mission!” Not even that seems to sway him though, as they’re already halfway out the door. Tsunade sighs, but does little else to stop him. Guess she’s got a soft spot for Naruto.

Things sure have changed around here.

After leading him most of the way down the hall, Sasuke hisses, “Let go of me,” pulling his wrist from Naruto’s grip. Naruto relents easily, instead turning around so he’s walking backwards but still facing Sasuke.

“Sakura is going to fucking flip, this is gonna be so funny,” he says, “Have you seen anyone else yet? Oh! We should go see Kiba, he helped me find you, he’s probably worried we’re gonna blow up the village or something. Where’ve you been staying, by the way? At some dingey hotel?”

“They put me at the Konoha Inn,” he says. Somehow, this is even more confusing than when Naruto was silent and supportive back at the memorial. This is just – he’s acting like Sasuke was just gone on a long mission, and if Sasuke doesn’t think too hard, he can almost pretend that’s all this is. But then he remembers sitting before the council members, and knowing that they have his family’s blood on their hands, no matter how wise or celebrated they may be by this damn village. He remembers that Naruto is able to grin and chatter like a fucking idiot because of his brother’s sacrifice. Uchiha blood drips from the walls of every building still standing in Konoha.

“The Konoha Inn?!” Naruto exclaims, “that place is so ritzy! Before you check out you gotta let me come to your room, I heard they got those new fancy tubs, and I’m so into that.”

“Naruto,” Sasuke says, stopping just shy of the exit of the building. Naruto stops with him, eyes wide and curious, hands still fixed lazily behind his head. “I’m not… I don’t want to go see everyone. Not right now.”

Naruto nods then, his face softening, and Sasuke’s chest aches at that. “Okay, yeah, sure,” he says, smiling and sliding his hands down into his pockets. “You gonna head back to the Inn for now?”

“Yeah,” he says. “You should go see what the Godaime wanted from you.”

“It’s probably just another fucking C-rank with Konohamaru,” Naruto says, rolling his eyes. “But yeah, I’ll go check, I guess.” He sighs, before fixing that grin back onto his face, “Don’t you fucking go anywhere, though, okay? Don’t make me chase after you again!”

Sasuke nods, “Okay,” and Naruto’s off.

* * *

 

A Root agent kneels before Shimura Danzou.

“It’s been confirmed,” she says, “Uchiha Sasuke has returned to the village.”

“Ah,” Danzou says, concern in his voice. “That will make getting rid of him much harder.”

“What would you have us do?”

“Nothing, for now,” he says, standing from his chair. “Keep him under observation, however. And keep me posted on any developments.”

“Yes, sir.”

Well, at least Uchiha Itachi’s warning is no longer of concern, Danzou supposes.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey y'all!! sry this chapter's on the shorter side, mental health's been kicking my ass the past week. also been rethinking some plot stuff so, i'm workin on it. wanted to make sure i stayed on schedule with a chapter a week though.
> 
> let me know what u think! multi-chapters r fucking hard to write, and this is my first one that i really really want to finish in like... five years. we're gettin there
> 
> unrelated: maybe expect some light-hearted one-shots outside this coming from me in the future? i've been starting some to buffer between working on this and it's been fun.

Naruto enters Tsunade’s office once more, looking as pitiful as a deflated balloon.

“Back already?” Tsunade scoffs. “Did Uchiha ditch you?”

“Ye _ees_ ,” Naruto whines, fists in his pockets, face twisted up something awful. “He said he’s heading back to the Inn, which like, I get.” Naruto does not _look_ like he gets it, but he’s not clinging to Sasuke by the ankles, which is, all things considered, better than she’d anticipated.

She signals to the ANBU guarding the room to trail Sasuke and make certain that _is_ where he’s going, before turning all her attention to Naruto. God, she wishes she’d been able to assign this sooner, this isn’t going to fucking work. “I have an S-rank mission for you,” she says.

“What?” he asks with alarm. A good sign, maybe he’ll bite. “You’ve been running me on kiddie missions, and _now_ you’re giving me something important?”

“You’re now very aware why you were getting kiddie missions,” she says, tapping her fingers on her desk. “Besides, this is based on new intel.” She has his attention, so she continues, “Our resources on Akatsuki’s actions have turned to nothing over the past few weeks, even Jiraiya’s contacts seem to have fallen off the map. We need to put eyes on the subject.”

“So you want me to spy?”

“Essentially,” she says. “It’s not as stealth-based as it seems, however. You would be dispatched along with Jiraiya to –”

“How long would it be?”

 _Dammit_.

“A minimum of a week,” she says, “most likely longer, stretching into a month or two.”

“Pass.”

 _God dammit_ –

“You can’t just _pass_ on your assigned missions, Naruto,” she says. “Do you understand how difficult it is, regardless, to get you on Akatsuki missions? And this one is crucial.”

“Of course I get it!” he says, and he seems frustrated even with himself. “But I can’t… you know I can’t. Not right now.”

“I can’t plan your missions based on your _personal_ life.”

“I’ve been planning my missions based on my personal life for years, old lady!” he shouts back. He’s losing his patience; that much is obvious. “Years, _years_ I’ve waited for this, you can’t just make me leave him. You’ll have to drag me out of the village with your bare hands if you want me out.”

He levels a hard stare at her, and she’ll admit it, his stubbornness is something else. It’s the same assuredness that he had when she first met him all those years ago, still a child but staring down one of the most legendary ninja in all of history like he owns the damn planet.

She hopes he makes good use of it someday, when he makes it to Hokage.

She could still send him – she’s the goddamn Hokage, she can make him do what missions she wants – but he’s not even the best for the job, she has other people. And if he’s going to go kicking and screaming, his effectiveness will be even lower. It’s not worth that much, not for what’s a hunch on her part.

And fuck it, she’s got a soft spot for him.

“Alright,” she sighs, her chair squeaking as she leans back into it. “I’m still sending you on missions, you’re not on vacation. But I’ll make them shorter, or local. For _now_.”

He relaxes instantly, and it’s then she notices he was beginning to leak the nine-tails chakra – just a touch of it, but enough to notice its absence once it subsides. “Thank you thank you thank _you_. And I promise I’ll do missions like that, like, soon, I just –”

“I know,” she says. “But Naruto, one more thing.”

“Hm?”

She remembers the look in Sasuke’s eyes when he knelt before her and the council. There was something undone about them, something in the way that when he was not directly addressed, his eyes went immediately to Homura and Koharu. His eyes burned.

“Give the kid space,” she says. “He probably needs it.”

“I’m trying,” Naruto says with a smile, leaving her office.

* * *

The room is spinning.

“I already told you,” Itachi says. Sasuke’s somewhere between the inner world and this one, the deep browns of the hotel room blurring with the pale beige of the Uchiha estate. And there’s blue, blue, blue. It’s mocking him. “You don’t have to slaughter them all.”

Naruto’s running, and it’s not real, not quite internal and _there_ like Itachi is, but instead pure imagination, his stupid grin turning towards him, blonde hair everywhere he can see. He’d been so… ecstatic to have Sasuke back, practically shaking out of his skin, all teeth and rapid hands and blue, blue, blue. Sasuke had anticipated this, had seen the way Naruto fought tooth and nail every step of the way to drag Sasuke back to this god-forsaken village, but he didn’t expect –

He didn’t expect the ease that would rest in his stomach from it, he didn’t expect – he didn’t expect it to make _him_ happy.

“You can have your revenge and happiness, too, Sasuke.”

Sasuke throws the lamp through where Itachi seems to stand, shattering it against the wall.

* * *

Naruto’s about to lose his fucking mind.

He’s waiting for Sakura’s shift to end to tell her – no need to cause a goddamn riot in the hospital – but just sitting here doing nothing is killing him. And he can’t do anything either, because the only thing that feels at all right is running straight to the Konoha Inn and barreling into Sasuke with all he has.

‘ _Give the kid space_ ,’ Tsunade had said – yeah, well he’s fucking trying, trying with everything he has. He still isn’t quite processing that Sasuke’s here, actually here. He knows Sasuke like he knows anything, and he knows he shouldn’t smother him, but it’s killing him in every way possible to not do just that.

Breathe, let Sasuke breathe, he’ll see him soon.

Oh my god he’ll see him soon he’s going to _lose it_.

“Naruto?” Sakura asks, exiting the hospital, eyes cast up at him. “Is there… a reason you’re dangling from the roof outside my work?”

He leaps down then, adjusting himself to being right-side up again. “Just waiting for you!” he says, grinning.

“Upside-down?”

“It’s called training, Sakura!” Besides, focusing his chakra in his feet had helped keep him a little bit regulated, at least.  There was no way he could’ve just sat on the steps doing absolutely nothing.

She rolls her eyes, “Alright, alright. Now, what’d you want? I’m tired, I can’t grab ramen today.”

Naruto takes a deep breath then. God, he’d wanted Sasuke to be here for this, wanted to see the look on Sakura’s face when she saw that he’s fucking _here_. But Sasuke needs his space, and Naruto’s not gonna keep this from Sakura. So here and now it is. “Sasuke’s back in the village.”

“I – is this about sensing his chakra, did it happen again?”

“I found him,” he says, “he’s back.”

There’s a silence then, because Sakura’s eyes are wide as can be and she looks like her skull’s about to cave in. “He-  he what?”

This is what Naruto wanted Sasuke to see, because well, it’s fucking funny, Sakura never gets dumbfounded like this – but also he thinks… it’d be good, for him, to see how everyone feels. Last time, Sasuke was too wrapped up in his ambitions, too overcome by darkness. Now, maybe he can see how much he means to the people in this village.

“He’s back!”

“But… but _where_ , why?” she asks. “Oh god, is he in jail?”

“No, no no!” Naruto says, waving his hands a bit frantically. “Well… kind of? He’s on probation I think. But it’s like, luxury probation. They’ve got him in a hotel, which like, hey, where’s _my_ hotel?”

“Can you get on with it, you idiot?”

She looks like he’s about to hit him, but he looks around, says, “Okay, Tsunade told me I could tell you, which obviously, I just did but uh, maybe we should go somewhere else for the rest?”

“Like the hotel Sasuke’s in?” she offers, seemingly pissed than they aren’t there right now. ‘ _Fuck, me too, Sakura_ ,’ Naruto thinks.

“He uh, needs some space right now, I think,” Naruto says. “We can talk and walk though! Come on.”

* * *

“You’re getting worse at internalizing your responses to me,” Itachi says. That much is obvious – Sasuke’s kneeled on the floor, cleaning up the shattered pieces of a lamp. A shard from the bulb slices at his finger and he curses under his breath. He wonders if they’ll charge him for property damage – he couldn’t afford it, anyway. Unless he’s old enough for his inheritance now, which is an odd thought.

He tries to focus on the internal, not speaking aloud, says, “It was a fluke.”

“A fluke that cannot happen during what’s to come. You can’t talk to me aloud while trying to infiltrate a base, for instance. You’ll give yourself away.” Itachi stands in the doorway of the Uchiha estate, his back turned to Sasuke.  He says, “What will you do first?”

“I assumed you had ideas.”

* * *

“He killed Itachi?” Sakura asks.

“Yeah,” Naruto says. “And he gave him a funeral.”

“That’s… that’s kinda weird, right?”

“Yeah,” he says, voice soft. “He was crying.”

* * *

“Soon you will no longer be under such close observation,” Itachi says. “But they will still be skeptical of you for a long time. It may prove more strategic to wait longer. A few years, perhaps.”

Uchiha blood drips from the doorway over Itachi, drops landing on his shoulders.

“I can’t wait that long.”

Itachi turns his head around then, looks at him, “You never have had much patience, Sasuke.”

Suddenly, he’s on the other end of the room, inside, back still turned, blood staining his shoulders. Sometimes he’s like this, staring at walls, hands crooked and curved in a way they shouldn’t be, chest heaving in a way that Sasuke never saw Itachi be in life, always hidden behind a calm façade. A reminder that he’s not meant to be here, that this is only a fraction of him, digging his nails desperately into life for one last mission.

Everything always had to be a mission for Itachi.

A part of him thinks that he should take this second chance, he should ask his brother all the things he never got to. So much is the same in this other realm, maybe they can train, and it can be like it was. Training with Itachi had always been better, had always had a playful thrill to it in a way he hadn’t ever felt since then. He got close with Naruto, but not quite – that was blood-pumping, made his chest tighten and his stomach twist. Itachi made his muscles loose and his head free.

He wonders if he could hug his brother, this ghost of him.

Instead, he says, “I can do plenty even under their suspicion.”

“Hm,” Itachi says. “Well, let’s talk strategy, then.”

* * *

“Does he seem different?” Sakura asks.

“Quieter,” Naruto says.

“He was always quiet.”

“More than that,” Naruto says. “I think he’s probably just dealing with a lot.”

“He always was.”

* * *

“It will be difficult to accomplish this undetected,” Itachi says. “You must use caution.”

“I will.”

“And _patience_ ,” Itachi emphasizes.

Sasuke scoffs, “I _will_.”


End file.
